Palouse and Snake Rivers
Arrival at the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers came early for the Sea Bird this morning. Captain Graves began preparations for dropping the hook at approximately 7:15AM. Due too high winds experienced earlier this morning, careful attention was given to dropping the hook, while rapid gusts of wind continued to buffet the ship. There appeared to be a break in the cloud cover and our hope was to take advantage of that brief sunny period and enjoy some of the days planned activities.
As we enjoyed our breakfast, Zodiacs were lowered and the Natural history staff prepared for our two morning options. As our expedition leader explained during breakfast, half of the Sea Bird would make a short journey by local bus to the Palouse falls while the other half of the vessel would head up the river bed of the Palouse river for a closer look at the channeled scablands. Ahead of us, on the Snake River we would eventually encounter Lower Monumental dam, and the lake created behind that dam included the waters we were now traveling in. Once that dam had been put in place a long and narrow-shaped lake formed up the Snake River including some of the Palouse River, a tributary that empties into the Snake River.
It was a balmy 52 degrees as we made our way towards the aft section of the Sea Bird and down to the fantail to board the waiting Zodiacs. As pre-arranged half of our group went ashore, and were taken on a short twenty-minute ride to Palouse Falls for a look at this tremendous two hundred-foot waterfall created by the Bretz floods. The last flood occurred nearly 12,000 years ago, and the resulting plunge pool is now the Palouse falls. After a spectacular view, some of us enjoyed a brief hike around the top and backside of the waterfall. The remnants of last week’s accumulation of ice, during an arctic front, were still decorating the sides of the canyon that contains Palouse falls. Meanwhile, the rest of the Sea Bird’s guests remained on board our floating home, waiting for Zodiac shuttles to finish and begin an extended tour following the narrow lake that lay on top of the original Palouse River bed.
As we pulled away from the Sea Bird the clouds began to break apart and an extremely dark skyline was the backdrop for the hills and basalt formations decorated in the golden grasses of fall in the channeled scablands. We learned about the Native peoples who once lived at the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers. The annual migration made each year from winter camps to summer camps in higher elevations near Mt. Hood. The ancestors to the Palouse people once paddled in these same waters harvesting both plants and animals, adding to their foodstuffs for the long winters ahead of them. And in those winter camps stories and creation myths were told of the beginnings of each animal and plant that shared land with people.
We cruised slowly north watching the light shift and change across a stark but subtly beautiful landscape. In the sky we saw two Golden eagles soaring on the winds. In the water we watched a group of Bufflehead ducks watching us in the approaching Zodiacs. As the Zodiacs continued up the channel and around a big bend we found ourselves coming close to a thin covering of ice left over from the previous weeks freezing conditions. The ice was breaking up in the warmer temperatures and crackling in the winds of the day. As all three Zodiacs began positioning for their mutual return trip to the Sea Bird a porcupine was spotted, sitting in a large willow.....contentedly nibbling on the bark and cambium of that tree....enjoying his or her lunch! The wind would occasionally ruffle his golden spines matching the color of the grasses and bringing this unusual ecosystem of lichen-covered basalt, grasses, birds, animals, ice and water together, all integral parts interrelated to each other.
